Bad Examples of Motherhood
Meditation for the week of May 8, 2011
"HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER," which is the first commandment with promise (Ephesians 6:2).
Often as we grow up, we tend to rebel against our parents. We may feel that when it comes to spiritual things, we were brainwashed and forced to attend religious activities. We are often ashamed to be seen with our parents when we are with our friends. We may feel that our parents were old fashioned and just not “with it.” As we get older, however, we usually find that our parents were wiser than we thought. We may even begin to appreciate the “brain washing” and the nurturing that at one time seemed to encroach on our own right to make our own decisions.
Most children, no matter how they were raised, do believe that their parents and particularly their mothers do in fact love them. The Lord uses the illustration of a mother hen to illustrate His love for the children of Israel. In Matthew 23:37 the Lord says, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!” I think most mothers love and protect their children better than a hen does. However, that cannot be said of all mothers. On this mothers day I am glad that I didn’t have the following mothers:
Athaliah: “When Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the royal heirs (2 Kings 11:1).” Somehow I don’t think she had much of a nurturing maternal instinct. Apparently she slew all of her grandchildren so she could be queen. Of course she was the daughter of Jezebel and had learned from a master.
Jezebel: “But there was no one like Ahab who sold himself to do wickedness in the sight of the LORD, because Jezebel his wife stirred him up (1 Kings 21:25).” Jezebel was a murderer and an idolater. She massacred the prophets of the Lord, she killed an innocent man to take ownership of his land, and encouraged the people of Israel to be immoral through the worship of Baal. God preserves life, but those who worship demonic gods take life. They do not understand the value of each person that God has brought into the world. They are destroyers and not builders.
The prostitute: The story is told in 1 Kings 3 of a two prostitutes who gave birth three days apart. One of them accidentally suffocated her son in the night, but she tried to make it look like it was the other woman’s son who died. She had no love for the living child since she was willing to see the child killed rather than admitting it was not hers. This was one of King Solomon’s finest moments. He knew that the real mother would not allow him to kill the child and divide it between the two women. There was something gravely wrong with this prostitute’s mothering skills. In addition, she had no love for the child that was not her own.
Herodias: “So she (the daughter of Heodias), having been prompted by her mother, said, "Give me John the Baptist’s head here on a platter (Matthew 14:8).” Herodias wanted to kill John the Baptist because he had told her that her marriage to Herod was unlawful since she was still Herod’s brother’s wife. She was like so many who are rebuked for their sin today. She was not going to let anyone rebuke her and live to tell about it.
Why am I listing “bad examples” of mothers? I think that these mothers make most of our mothers look good by comparison. I mean really good! I think we can all be thankful that we were not born into the families listed above. We should thank God for the mothers that we had. We should probably thank them as well. If they tended to be old fashioned and if they loved us enough to tell us about our need of the Lord, take a moment to thank God for that as well. Even if you are reading this while still unconvinced that your mother was right about the Bible and about your need to be saved, the fact that your mother bugged you about something that she really believed in, should convince you that she really loved you!
Bruce Collins